Street Hawkers

Back in the 1960s, the streets of Singapore were full with markets and street hawkers. They sold everything that you could want. As well as fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, they also sold furniture, rattan work, household utensils, toys, clothes, jewellery and many other goods. I loved going to them all but was probably more fascinated by the cheap toys and piles of rambutans more than anything. The stalls had their own smell especially at the end of the day when the fruit and vegetables weren't at their best after cooking in the heat of the sun all day. The stalls produced a lot of rubbish including cardboard boxes, rotting fruit and vegetables as well as other waste, much of which must have ended up in the Singapore River. As the government slowly cleaned up the streets, many of the hawkers were cleared away. A report in a local newspaper in 1970 covered the story:

4th August 1970.

'Street hawkers to be moved under cover.'

A massive five-year plan was announced to clear all hawkers - 25,000 of them - off the streets. This was consistent with the Government's effort of providing a better and healthier environment for the people to live in. Under the plan, popular roadside stalls, such as those in Orchard Road, Satay Club in Beach Road and the noodle stalls at Hokkien Street, would be gradually moved indoors.

Today, Singapore is a totally different place to the one that I remember in my childhood in the 1960s. There are no more street hawkers, market stalls or snake charmers. All the rubbish is now gone and the streets are spotless. The Singapore River is clean and all the hundreds of sampans and bumboats that once inhabited the area have been cleared away. A lot has changed over the years and I miss the old Singapore. The new Singapore is very modern, clean and tidy but there's something that's been lost under all the tall skyscrapers, super fast railway systems and modern housing. I wonder how many people living in Singapore today miss it all?

More Jalan Wijaya

A few weeks ago, I heard from Tracey Jamieson who said that she was enjoying my blog and that my tales of our days in Singapore and Malaya were strangely similar to her memories. By sheer coincidence it turned out that she lived at 97 Jalan Wijaya at the same time that we lived at 103 Jalan Wijaya. That meant that she was only three houses away from us (the house numbers went up in twos). We didn't remember each other but I sent her a photo of my 4th birthday party and Tracey was on the left of the picture! Tracey was visiting her mother so sorted through her photo album and sent me some pictures. One of her dad, Jack Latimer, and friends was taken right outside our front door. Others showed the street and nearby houses. It was lovely to see the photos which reminded me of my childhood spent there and also jogged my memory of parts of the area that I'd long forgotten 

 

about. It seemed a huge coincidence that we both lived in the same street at exactly the same time. I asked my parents if they remembered Tracey's parents but they could only remember our immediate neighbours and Tracey's next door neighbour, Harry Smith. I do, however, have a vague memory of going to school and a blonde haired girl living further down the street and I think that this must have been Tracey. I was only about 5 at the time!

The colour photo on the right shows Tracey's house at 97 Jalan Wijaya. Isn't it amazing how the internet manages to put so many people, with similar memories and interests, in touch with each other? I've just started up a Facebook page called, you've guessed it, 'Sampans, Banyans and Rambutans' where I hope people will add their own photos and reminisces. If you want to check it out it's at Sampans, Banyans and Rambutans (Facebook)

Fresh chickens

James Seah kindly sent me a video that showed market stall holders in Singapore selling fresh chickens. 'Fresh' nowadays means buying it pre-packaged from a supermarket. Then, it meant buying the chicken alive and taking it home with you and letting it run around the garden until you needed it! I remember coming back from Singapore on the bus with my mum on many occasions and there would be live chickens running around our feet, together with lots of other produce including huge fish wrapped in newspaper. It was certainly different from getting on a bus today! Our chicken always came already cooked and we certainly never brought home any live ones. Even then, I felt sorry for the chickens and all the other animals like the lobsters that would be swimming around in tanks in restaurants before being chosen by a hungry customer and then cooked. I wonder if they still do that?

The bus journeys always were eventful and apart from the wildlife on board, there were the continuous breakdowns which meant that the many passengers outside the bus, some just seemed to cling to the side, would jump off and give it a push until it went again. Then they would all jump on again. No wonder the bus broke down with all that extra weight! As I said in an earlier blog, nobody ever queued for the bus and everyone just piled on. I can't remember how everyone paid, I don't remember there being a conductor on the bus.

I remember all the smells and noise of the livestock too. As a small boy, I loved seeing all the chicken running around. It seems strange now but, in a way, I sort of miss it! I know that if we'd brought a chicken home when we lived at Jalan Wijaya, it would have probably ended up being given a name and left to run around the garden until it died of old age!

The removal of Change Alley

Like me, many of you will have fond memories of our parents bartering in Change Alley in the 1960s. I remember a stall holder would approach you and shake your hand and say, 'Where are you from?'. You could say anywhere in the world and he would say, 'Ah! I have an uncle there!' Once they got hold of your hand, they wouldn't let go of it until they'd successfully manoeuvred you into their shop! Anything that you wanted to buy would be there including clothes and electrical goods. You could also get local cash from the Indian money changers trading at Change Alley. There was also food, carvings, rattan work, toys, gifts and jewellery. I think a suit cost about 30 shillings and could be made up in several hours. Many servicemen went there for their uniforms. The Change Alley that we all remember disappeared in 1989. There's a news story in The Chronicle of Singapore which reads: 17th April 1989 Change Alley will be no more on 30th April. Shopkeepers and hawkers have been told to clear their stocks. They were supposed to have moved out earlier in April but have been given an extension following an appeal. According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority, demolition works will start in early May. Some hawkers have taken up the Environment Ministry's offer of vacant sundry and cooked-food stalls in existing markets and food centres. An entry for 2nd February 1994 reads: A Change-d Alley The new Change Alley was officially opened as an up-market shopping podium as part of a $600-million Hitachi Tower/Caltex House Development. Once a bustling lane of little shops crammed with money changers and Asian exotica that attracted sailors, tourists and bargain hungry Singaporeans, it now houses up-scaled brands like Anne Klien II and was designed for the professionals who worked in the area. When I went back to Singapore in December 1990, I went to Change Alley and yet the reports say that it closed in 1989 and didn't open again until 1994. That's strange, maybe I travelled back in time. And, when I told the man in one of the shops where I was from, he said, ''Ah! I have an uncle there!'. Uncanny!

Happy Chinese New Year

I think today is Chinese New Year so, 'Gong Xi Fa Cai', which translates to 'Wishing you prosperity in the New Year'. There seems to be various diffent spellings including, 'Kong Hei Fatt Choy' and I think I've seen others but they all seem to be pronounced the same. I think that this is the year of the tiger. The photo shows my dad and mum attending the Chinese New Year celebrations in February 1966 at KD Malaya. I seem to remember us all going up to the base in Singapore and there being fantastic firework displays but I think that this must have been on a different night to the Chinese Dinner and Dance that my parents went to. Perhaps it was on the same day as it always got dark at 7pm so maybe we left earlier before our parents' party began. As you can see, I still have the original invite which says that the party was on the 19th February, 1966 at 8pm. The evening included, 'Dancing to the Vigilantes', a Raffle, Spot Prizes, a Lion Dance and a Late Bar. There was also a Chinese meal which included Shark's Fin Soup, Satay Duck, Fried Rice and Ice Lai Chee.

I don't know what the last one is! I remember that when we first arrived at Jalan Wijaya, we were woken up by loud noises that we thought were gunfire. With the recent trouble with the Indonesians, my parents thought that we were under attack and that the noises were gunfire. It turned out that it was Mr Lee, across the way, letting off fire crackers for Chinese New Year. The fire crackers were very loud in those days and in subsequent years, they were banned. I probably slept through it all as, although I've been told the story many times, I don't remember any of it. I slept through the nearby rubber factory burning down too!

 

Bartering

I'm not sure if the market stall holder in this photo is telling the buyer what he can do with his offer or if he is asking for $2! Back in the 1960s, bartering was a way of life. You would start at about half what the seller was asking and between you, you would haggle to a price somewhere in between. This way both parties were happy. If you were unhappy with the price, you would walk off but you could always guarantee that the seller would call you back. Whatever the price was, you always felt that you got a good deal. The market stalls were great places for bartering as was Change Alley but it seemed that everywhere we went, they were happy to reduce their prices. When I went back to Singapore in 1990, I tried to barter again. I found that I was just laughed at, things had changed! People enjoyed trying to get a bargain and the locals expected it anyway so put their prices up to start off with. I remember when we first got there, my parents were looking for a table and chairs. They saw some they liked and asked how much they were. Sometimes, you would get ridiculously high prices because the locals knew that you had just arrived by how white you were! The reply was ‘Two Dollar Fifty, Missy!’ My mum was surprised and turned to my dad and said ‘Two Dollars Fifty!’, thinking it was very cheap. The man in the shop thought that she thought they were expensive and instantly reduced the price to two dollars! They couldn’t have made much profit in the shops because they always gave all of us a drink and if you didn’t have a car, they would take you and the furniture back home for free! I'm sure that many people got a bargain and there must be souvenirs from Singapore all over Britain because of this. Unfortunately, after 40 or so years, much of it seems to have ended up in charity shops!

Whatever happened to the monkeys in the Botanic Gardens?

This photo shows my mum, dad and me feeding the monkeys in the Botanic Gardens in Singapore in about 1965. I was scared stiff of them! I've probably written about this before but when I went back to Singapore in 1990, I wondered what had happened to all the monkeys that we loved feeding back then. In 1990, there wasn't a single one left. This morning, I received a lovely book from a good friend, James Seah in Singapore, called, 'Chronicle of Singapore 1959 - 2009'. James has his own excellent Singapore Blog which many of you will know called Blog to Express. The book is wonderful to read and it's very interesting to read not just the news stories of when we were there but also to read what has happened since. I think, within it's pages, lies the answer to the disappearance of all those wonderful monkeys. An entry for 1971 reads: MONKEY SHOOTINGS DRAW CELEBRITY PROTEST 23rd January,1971 Hollywood actress Barbara Werle and three friends staged a picket-line protest outside the Botanic Gardens against the culling of wild monkeys in the park. Police broke up the protest after half an hour. Werle and her friends carried placards which read: 'Please don't shoot the monkeys - feed them!'and 'Save the Apes - take one to dinner. Stop the killing'. She said she was moved to protest after reading a report about the two-day cull in The New Nation, an afternoon paper. In response, the Primary Production Department said the monkeys were a 'vicious and wily' nuisance that threatened public welfare and had to be destroyed. It added that the Botanic Gardens would offer a prize to anyone who could suggest a more practical and humane way to get rid of the pests. So, there you have it. It looks like all those monkeys that we enjoyed feeding nuts and bananas to, all that time ago, were eventually shot. I find this quite sad but I suppose it's what I'd thought had probably happened to them. There seems to have been no place for monkeys in the new, very clean, Singapore. I was reading about someone who had lived in Singapore in the 1960s and had returned in the late 1980s and found much of it unrecognisable. He said that he didn't want to return again because he felt that it would have changed too much since his last visit and he would rather remember it how it was. Perhaps many people feel like that. Singapore today is certainly a very different city to the one that I remember in the 1960s. The book is an excellent read and it solves many other mysteries about disappeared parts of Singapore that I've often wondered about. I shall be including a lot more from its fascinating pages later on in this blog, so keep reading. Thanks again, James, for an excellent book, it's very much appreciated.